What is Web2.0?

Chances are you’ve heard this buzz phrase being tossed around lately but perhaps you’re not exactly sure what it means. Whether you’ve heard it or not, on some level you’ve used web 2.0 sites or applications – social networking sites, blogs etc. There’s as many “definitions” of what Web 2.0 is as there are people you ask about it. But while a capsule definition may not exist, there are certain characteristics that can be agreed upon. So this is just my take on it and how it applies to musicians and other small businesses.

The Internet, Take 1

When the internet first came about, you would create a website and then have to get people to come visit it. As a user, you went to that site and read what it had to say, and that’s about it. Perhaps there was a message board where you could interact with other readers, but that was about the extent of it. If you liked the site, maybe you remembered to go back to it every once in a while.

Design concepts were all over the place trying to keep up with new developments in programming, browser capabilities etc. When fancy things like Flash came about, form took over from function and you had everyone wanting a Flash site with intro movies, bells, whistles etc, regardless of whether it was a useful experience for the end user. And oftentimes it wasn’t.

v2.0

Web 2.0 represents an evolution. You don’t have to go to a site you like any more to see what’s going on – now the site’s content can come to you – via RSS feeds, for example. If you like what you read, chances are you can easily bookmark it, re-post it, vote for it, comment on it, tell your friends about it -generally share or interact with it in some way that is meaningful to you. Not only that but content is becoming more customizable – you subscribe to RSS feeds that suit your interests no matter how diverse and can ignore anything else. You can click a “tag” on a website and view only content about that keyword. You can create a ‘startpage’ (see netvibes.com) filled with content tailored to your interests, location, personality.

This also means that content takes on a life of its own – you no longer just put something on your site and beg people to come read it. People share videos, use widgets to re-purpose and re-distribute content for a truly viral effect that is generally beyond your scope of control. While this freaks out some larger corporations/brands, you can use it to your advantage if you have a more communal mentality.

Highly niched content is becoming valuable – you can make content, or find content for very specific people/audiences, you no longer have to cater to the lowest common denominator in order to try and attract eyeballs.

Design has become more about cleanliness and simplicity – function over form -design that enhances your browsing and information-gathering experience, not obscures it.

Development-wise, it’s all about collaboration and being open; developing applications and tools that work across all platforms and networks; creating ways to allow users to do with your content as they will.

Here are some 2.0 tools and sites which you could potentially be using. We’ll touch on most of these at some point:

Blogs
Twitter
Social Bookmarking
Social Networking
Widgets
RSS
Music discovery engines
Digg
StumbleUpon

Web 2.0 opens up the possibilities of developing a real audience for yourself, branding yourself online and therefore creating revenue streams for yourself that will bring in income even when you are not actively pushing a new album release. The music economy at labels tends to be focused around the 8 weeks or so that they push a new album. If you have a release schedule with hundreds of releases each year, this might be viable, but for an indie with just a handful of releases, its not realistic to expect to be able to generate enough income from those releases right away, to support yourself. The indie strategy needs to be different and focused on developing fans that will purchase from you all year round. We’ll look at some of the tools that can help you build the foundation for a sustainable economy.

So my definition of web 2.0 hinges on 2 things:

- the web comes to you – you don’t need to go to it, and you can customize how and what comes to you – highly niched and targeted content is viable and desirable.

- the web can be shared, re-purposed, re-posted – its dynamic, viral and portable.